(Letter to the Editor - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

The writer does not understand Trickle-Down Economics. Let me try again. Facts are the wealthy got 80% of the tax breaks and everyone else got the remainder. Between 2017, tax law change, and 2020, COVID-19, the deficit increased $10 trillion. This turns out to be a tax on everyone’s children and grandchildren when the bill comes due. It will be primarily paid by the low and middle income tax payer. I can say this from my knowledge of tax law and economics. I am also rather wealthy by Parkersburg standards and not one of the writer’s bleeding heart liberals that wants to take every dime from the wealthy. Everyone should get a fair shake. The writer’s comments about the government collecting more taxes does not explain the deficit increase. Here is how TD economics should work based on the feeble minded economist that proposed it to Reagan, which Trump copied.

Eight of the $10 trillion of the deficit from the wealthy should have gone into building factories to make widgets. Using the $3 billion computer chip factory Intel is building near Columbus, Trump should have had operating/under construction 2,700 similar plants. Construction and factory workers at these plants get wages and benefits that allow raising families. Taxes on their increased income would exceed $10 trillion. The deficit might have been reduced. Trump got the Foxconn con job, a big hole in the ground with NO construction and factory jobs. Instead the writer and Trump ignored the basic Republican mantra “There is no free lunch.” The wealthy got a free pass. I know because I was part of it. The U.S. got a $10 trillion increase in the deficit.

The writer claims there was prosperity under the Trump tax bill. He mentions without citing data for start-ups and etc. These are not the quality of the Intel factory, rather something like an Uber operation. Here two or three people with college degrees at the top of the organization get all the money and everyone else works for $2 above minimum wages without benefits. You don’t raise families on these wages.

Here is why TD economics never works. Company CEOs get paid wages and bonuses based on the share price increases and dividend increases. He can build a plant and risk it not operating at capacity/the public rejects the product, or he can let the shareholders do the work. Much of the $8 trillion in money the wealthy, myself included, received was spent on a stock buying spree. All this money chasing a fixed number of stocks results in stock price inflation. CEOs love this no-risk option so new plants do not get built in the number expected.

Don’t elect Trump, an economic moron, because he promises more of the same in 2024.

Gregory Cigal

Parkersburg